If you are reading this after having seen the pictures, you’ve passed the first test.

That’s the thing about snakes: There isn’t a middle ground. A person either hates snakes with an intensity that can only come from primal fear, or is intensely fascinated by them.

So just think of this column as an attempt to create some sort of serpentine middle ground. If you come away from this still hating snakes, but at least thinking about letting them be, I will have done my job in this era of crisis-level species loss.

Because Matt Ellerbeck has some good news about snakes.

The local snake conservationist earlier this week came across several milk snakes in Brockville while doing observations for the Cataraqui Region Conservation Authority (CRCA).

“There has not been a milk snake sighted in the Brockville area, or at least reported, for a decade,” said Ellerbeck.

That’s good news, he added, because snakes are bioindicators.

“Their presence is an indicator that the environment in the Brockville area is generally healthy,” said Ellerbeck.

It’s also good news, he added, because the milk snake is listed, both provincially and federally, as a species of “special concern.”

Ellerbeck believes one reason for the milk snake’s precarious position has to do with its name, the result of an old myth which held that milk snakes suck milk from cows’ udders.

He added the myth likely originated from farmers who noticed the snakes sneaking into barns.

The snakes, however, are physically incapable of sucking milk from cows. And the real reason they sneak into barns a lot is to chow down on the steady supply of rodents that can be found there.

Matt Ellerbeck submitted this photo of a milk snake he recently found in Brockville. (SUBMITTED PHOTO)jpg, BT

People may also be more inclined to kill milk snakes because they tend to rattle their tails to scare off predators, a movement that can lead the uninformed to mistake them for rattlesnakes, said Ellerbeck.

In fact, he added, milk snakes are not a threat to humans.

“They’re very shy. They try to avoid people.”

Ellerbeck, who runs a conservation initiative called Protect The Snakes, has been fascinated by the slithering creatures since childhood.

He is alarmed at the number of snake species at risk of extinction and aims to educate the public about what he considers a seriously misunderstood animal.

There has long been a visceral reaction to snakes, born perhaps of myths and ideas deeply embedded in our culture, making their way down the centuries to, say, a famous conversation between Harry Potter and a mean-looking cobra.

But the reality is snakes only tend to bite humans when they feel threatened, says Ellerbeck, and “defensive bites” from venomous snakes tend to carry less venom than the bites these snakes reserve for the animals on which they feed.

By letting snakes be, he adds, we are doing ourselves a favour.

“They’re a very effective means of pest control,” he said.

“They’ll help eat up the rodents, and if the rodents have ticks, they’ll help keep the ticks down.”

And the chances or running into a dangerous snake in this area are pretty low, since this region is not home to venomous snakes, noted Ellerbeck.

The only venomous snake found in Ontario is the massasauga rattlesnake, which lives in the Georgian Bay area, he added.

So, coming off the depressing news earlier this week about the rate at which humans are wiping out the planet’s biodiversity, we should all be encouraged by the fresh discovery of these milk snakes.

Ellerbeck’s key message to people is to let them slither on.

“And they won’t steal their milk,” he said.

City hall reporter Ronald Zajac can be reached at Rzajac@postmedia. com.